laeaboD^ CDucation ^ixniy. 



TRIBUTES 



TO 



SAMUEL WETMORE 



GENERAL GRANT. 



TRIBUTES 



TO 



SAMUEL WETMORE 



GENERAL GRANT, 



ANNUAL MEETING OF THE TRUSTEES 



PEABODY EDUCATION FUND, 



New York, 7 October, 1885. 



CAMBRIDGE: 

PRESS OF JOHN WILSON AND SON. 

1885. 






Reprinted from the Proceedings. 
100 Copies. 



R 



TRI BUTES. 



At the Annual Meeting of the Trustees of the 
Peabody Education Fund, tlie Chairman, the Hon. 
Robert C. Winthrop, LL.D., after some remarks 
of a business character, proceeded as follows : — 

I turn, Gentlemen, without further preamble, to the 
signal bereavements which we have sustained since our 
last Annual Meeting, and which claim our attention to- 
day, not merely in view of the vacancies which are pres- 
ently to be filled, but in justice to the memories of the 
valued associates whom we have lost. 

Mr. Samuel Wetmore died at his residence in this city 
on the 27th of March last. He was one of the original 
members of our Board, and had been its Treasurer from 
the organization of our Trust in 1867, having been selected 
and nominated for that responsible office by Mr. Peabody 
himself. Born and educated in Middletown, Connecticut, 
he had entered early into mercantile life, had spent many 
years in China, and had been associated, as partner or 
as principal, in large commercial enterprises in the East 
Indies and in South America. Mr. Peabody had known 
him intimately as a merchant of the highest integrity, 
and as a man of the best disposition and character. 
We shall all agree. Gentlemen, that our Fund could not 
have been entrusted to a more e.xact, faithful, and devoted 
Treasurer. 



Giving no bonds and receiving no salary or commissions, 
he took pride in watciiing over the noble endowment which 
had been made by his illustrious friend for the welfare of 
the children of the Southern States. His vigilance could 
not have been exceeded. His particularities often amused 
us, and when we were pressed for time, came near, per- 
haps, to rendering us impatient ; but they always inspired 
the confidence that everything could be safely left to so 
conscientious and untiring a devotion. That confidence, I 
need not add, was fully justified. 

In the early part of his administration of our finances, 
his duties were sometimes onerous and perplexing ; and 
to the last they occasionally involved more responsibility 
than was quite agreeable to so sensitive and scrupulous a 
temperament. But he persisted steadfastly through a term 
of nearly eighteen years ; and our last Annual Meeting 
was, I believe, the very first at which he failed to be pres- 
ent, and to render his Report, and explain his accounts 
in person. His health had been visibly and seriously 
impaired for several years, and he had then met with a 
painful accident at Newport, which incapacitated him for 
coming on to be with us. We missed him on that occa- 
sion, and we miss him to-day. His obliging disposition 
and invariable kindness of heart made him a most agree- 
able companion, and added not a little to the social enjoy- 
ments of our meetings. 

He died in the seventy-third year of his age, esteemed 
and respected by all who knew him. 

Of the death of General Grant, which occurred — as 
all the world took instant notice — at Mount McGregor in 
this State, on the 23d of July last, I hardly know how 
to speak. For, indeed, almost everything worth saying 
has already been said, of his death and of his life, of his 
whole career and character, until the language of eulogy 



is exhausted. No death in our da)' and generation has 
called forth more full, just, and admirable tributes, by type 
and tongue, in the newspapers, in the pulpits, and in public 
assemblies, in all parts of our own country, and in not a 
few parts of other countries. The varied fortunes and 
striking contrasts of his early life, — at West Point, in 
Mexico, in Oregon, and at St. Louis, until he fell out of 
all public sight or thought at Galena ; his instantaneous 
reappearance at the call of his country, and his rapid rise 
from grade to grade until he had fought his way up to 
the very highest military rank ; his unerring instinct ; his 
unflinching courage ; his iron will ; his unyielding tenacity 
of plan and purpose ; his vast powers of combination, and 
the sleepless energy with which he pushed through to its 
end whatever he attempted ; his singular reticence, flower- 
ino- out at last into so many felicitous utterances in writing 
and by word of mouth ; his self-control, his modesty, his 
magnanimity, and the Christian resignation and heroic 
fortitude with which he bore the calamities and terrible 
sufferings of his last months on earth, — all, all have been 
the themes of touching description and brilliant illustra- 
tion at home and abroad. I could add nothing, certainly, 
— even were it fit for me to attempt it on such an occasion 
as this, — to the unqualified praise which his career as a 
Soldier has elicited from both sides of the momentous 
struggle in which he was a leader. 

It is glory enough for him that he was the chosen instru- 
ment of his government, and of God, in bringing that 
struggle to a close by the blessed restoration of Union 
and Peace to our land. The name of Monk is not more 
inseparably identified with the restoration of the monarchy 
to Old England than that of Grant with the restoration of 
Union to our American Republic. No other honors which 
have been paid, or which can be paid, to his memory can 
ever equal the universal rec6gnition of that fact and its 



acceptance for the records of history. Successive elections 
to the Presidency during what remained of his life ; the 
sjDlendid receptions which he met with from the rulers and 
people of the Old World during his memorable foreign 
tour ; the grand national funeral at his death ; the costly 
and countless monuments which are proposed in his honor, 
at Riverdale and elsewhere, have no significance to be 
compared for a moment with the simple record that, under 
his lead, the American Union was saved. That grand 
funeral pageant itself, on the 8th of August last, owed its 
main impressiveness to the evidence it afforded — in all its 
incidents, and by all who took part in it or witnessed it — 
that a restored National Union, a renewed brotherhood 
among the people, and a renewed sisterhood among the 
States, was felt to have been accomplished through him 
who was thus followed to his grave by troops of friends, — 
so many of whom had been his foes, — -and that all parties 
and sections of the country were alike ready to attest their 
glad and grateful consciousness of that glorious result. 

But it is for us. Gentlemen, to remember General Grant, 
more peculiarly, in his relations to the work in which we 
have so long been associated with him. Like his friend 
Mr. Wetmoke, he was one of the original members of our 
Board ; and though so many years have since elapsed, it 
seems but yesterday that I was privileged to call upon him 
at his headquarters in Washington, while he was Com- 
mander-in-chief of the army, to invite him confidentially, 
at the request and in the name of our Founder, to be one 
of the Trustees. He accepted the invitation without a 
moment's hesitation, and with evident emotions of pleasure. 
The next morning found him with us at the formal organ- 
ization of this Board. Those of the original members who 
are still left, and they are but few, will recall him, as I do, 
in his undress uniform, with nothing but the stars on his 
shoulder-straps to indicate his rank, kneeling by the side 



of Mr. Peabody and Governor Aiken in a little room 
at Willard's, while good Bishop McIlvaine invoked the 
blessing of heaven on the w^ork we were assembled to 
inaugurate. 

A few months afterwards, he was with us at New York 
for nearly a week, at the meeting at which our organization 
was completed, our plans matured, and our first General 
Agent, Dr. Sears, appointed. The briUiant entertainment 
which Mr. Peabody gave to the Trustees on that occasion, 
in special honor of General and Mrs. Grant, will not be 
forgotten by any one who was present at it. From that 
time onward he attended our meetings as often as it was in 
his power, — at Richmond, at Baltimore, at New York, at 
Boston, and at Washington, where, as President of the 
United States, in 1870, he gave a banquet to the Trustees 
at the Executive Mansion. 

Meeting him casually in one of the corridors of this 
hotel, just before his departure for Europe, I said to him, 
in bidding him " Good-by," "Don't forget our Peabody 
meetings, General, on your return." And his reply was 
emphatic, " They are among the last things I shall ever 
forget, Mr. Winthrop ; and I shall always be with you 
when I can." He was with us, accordingly, on several 
successive occasions after his return home, including our 
very last meeting ; when, though already a suffering in- 
valid, he spent a large part of two days in consultation 
with the Board, and evinced a warm, personal, intelligent 
interest in all our proceedings. He had set a special value 
on Mr. Peabody's munificent endowment, as the first prac- 
tical manifestation, on a grand scale, of that spirit of con- 
ciliation and magnanimity which he himself had displayed 
so signally in the very flush of victory. He felt deeply, 
too, that the education of the children of all classes and 
races was vital to the prosperity and welfare not only of 
the Southern States, but of the whole country ; and he 
united with us in invoking the aid of the government. . 



8 



The death of General Grant leaves us with but four 
of the sixteen original members of this Board. It is 
pleasant for us to remember that two of our departed 
associates — in addition to our founder, Mr. Peabody — 
have received at their death the supreme honors of West- 
minster Abbey, — Bishop McIlvaine in 1873, and now 
General Grant. But it is even more pleasant for us to 
look back on all whom we have lost as having enjoyed the 
esteem and respect of their fellow-countrymen, and as 
having entitled themselves to our own grateful and affec- 
tionate remembrance. We have filled the vacancies in sad 
succession, as we are bound to do now ; but the places of 
not a few of them will long be vacant still in the hearts 
of those who have been associated with them in a Trust so 
dear to us all. 

I will no longer detain you from listening to the Annual 
Report of our General Agent. 

At the conclusion of Mr. Winthrop's remarks 
Mr. Stuart addressed the Board as follows : — 

Mr. Chairman, — I hope I shall not be regarded by my 
colleagues as officious or obtrusive in moving that so much 
of our Chairman's Address as refers to the death of Gen- 
eral Grant be referred to a Select Committee of three, to 
consider and report what action should be taken by the 
Board in relation thereto. 

General Grant, though a native and resident of the 
North, in fact belonged to the whole country ; and it has 
seemed to me that it would tend to give emphasis to that 
fact if the movement to do honor to his memory were to 
come from a Southern man. 

I therefore, as the representative of Virginia, — a State 
which was under many obligations to General Grant, — 
take the hberty of submitting that motion. 



The motion was passed, and Messrs. Stuart, 
Hayes, and Manning were appointed the Com- 
mittee. 

Mr. EvARTS then moved that the tribute to the 
memory of Mr. Wetmore be referred to a Special 
Committee, which was accordingly done; and 
Messrs. Evarts, Aiken, and Whipple were ap- 
pointed. 

Mr. Evarts, in behalf of the Committee to whom 
was referred that part of the Chairman's address 
relating to the death of Mr. Wetmore, made the 
following Report, which was unanimously adopted, 
all the members of the Board rising when the 
vote was put : — 

The Committee appointed to present a suitable minute 
upon the death of Mr. Wetmore to be entered in the 
records of the Board, respectfully submit the following : — 

Resolved, That this Board has heard with a sensible grief of the 
death of their esteemed associate, Mr. S.«iuel Wetmore, and 
desire to acknowledge the value of his great services to the Board, 
and to the interests of the administration of the Peabody Fund, 
and his steadfast and stainless character as a merchant and a 

citizen. 

Resolved, That the conduct by Mr. Wetmore of the office of 
Treasurer of the Board for eighteen years, the whole period of the 
existence of the Peabody Foundation, has been governed by an 
absolute integrity, a scrupulous and circumspect care, and a uni- 
form urbanity of manner, which have received the confidence, 
respect, and affection of all his associates. 

Resolved, That a copy of these Resolutions be communicated 
to the widow and family of our deceased friend, with our expression 
of sincere condolence with them in their great bereavement. 



lO 



Mr. Stuart, in behalf of the Committee to con- 
sider the tribute paid to General Grant, submit- 
ted the following Report and Resolutions, which 
were unanimously adopted, all the members rising 
when the question was put : — 

The Committee to whom was referred so much of our 
Chairman's opening Address as refers to the death of Gen- 
eral U. S. Grant, have had the same under consideration, 
and respectfully submit the following 

REPORT. 

Death has again broken the ranks of our Board. Gen- 
eral Ulysses S. Grant, the laurel-crowned warrior, the 
statesman who was twice elevated by the suffrages of the 
American people to the Presidency of the United States, 
the large-hearted patriot whose affections and aspirations 
during life were dedicated to his country's welfare and 
honor, the soldier who fought through long years of war 
that peace and all its attendant blessings might be se- 
cured to his countrymen, has been summoned from our 
side. 

He went to his grave honored and lamented by men of 
all sections, and parties, and races. Men who had been 
arrayed against him on the battle-field twenty years ago 
were no less sincere in their grief for his death than those 
who had stood by his side in the deadly encounters of war. 
All appreciated his patriotic purposes. All admired his 
heroic courage and steadfastness. All honored his truth- 
fulness and fidelity to every obligation. Bold, fearless, and 
aggressive in war, he was humane and magnanimous in the 
hour of victory. When, mainly through his efforts, civil 
war had ceased, he was among the first to seek to calm the 
angry passions to which it had given birth, and to invoke 



II 



the blessings of peace and the restoration of union in 
fact as well as in name. 

All remember how his patriotic appeal to his country- 
men at the commencement of his first Presidential term, 
" Let us have peace," thrilled the heart of every true 
American from the Lakes to the Gulf, and from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific. From that hour to the close of 
his earthly career there is good reason to believe that the 
first wish of his heart was to witness the fulfilment of that 
prayer. When he stood as it were on the verge of the 
grave, — when his mortal frame was wasted by disease, and 
his tongue had lost the power of giving utterance to the 
thoughts which filled his great soul, — he made the hand 
which had so successfully wielded the sword in defence of 
the Union its substitute, to record his gratitude to God 
for having permitted him to live long enough to witness 
the restoration of union and fraternity between his lately 
discordant countrymen. 

These noble sentiments sank deeply into the American 
mind, and awakened an echo in every patriotic heart. 
When he was stricken with the disease which finally 
proved fatal, the hearts of the people of all sections over- 
flowed with sympathy ; and when the end came, a wail of 
grief was heard throughout our whole country, which found 
expression in popular meetings, through the public press, 
and in every other mode of testifying respect and aftection 
known to civilized society ; and his obsequies were cele- 
brated with a solemn pomp and ceremony unparalleled in 
our country since the death of Wa.shington. 

General Grant was one of the sixteen original Trustees 
named by Mr. Peabody himself to administer his benefi- 
cent trust in behalf of the illiterate children of the Southern 
States. He was in full sympathy with the purpose of the 
founder of the trust, and earnestly and cordially co-oper- 
ated with his associates in their efforts to fulfil it. 



12 



At the date of his appointment, he was, with probably 
one exception, the youngest member of the Board, and his 
robust frame and apparently vigorous health gave promise 
of long life. But as it has pleased Him in whose hands 
are the issues of life and death to order otherwise, all that 
remains for us is with bowed heads and reverent hearts to 
submit to His decree. 

Having assembled now at our Annual Meeting for the 
first time since this great affliction fell upon us, we, the 
surviving members of the Board of Trustees of the Peabody 
Educational Fund, gladly embrace the opportunity to place 
on our official records this testimonial of our profound 
esteem for the character of our deceased associate, of our 
sincere grief at his loss, and of our sympathy with his 
widow and family in their bereavement. 

Of the achievements of General Grant as a soldier and 
a statesman, we have purposely forborne to speak more 
fully. They are of too recent date, and in some respects 
too closely connected with the political and party contests 
of the day, to admit of impartial judgment by contempo- 
raries. We therefore remit these subjects to the domain of 
history, to which they properly belong. 

But there are aspects of his character and attributes of 
his nature which elevate him far above the plane of the 
mere politician. Upon these all can dwell with pleasure. 
His heroic courage, his unselfish devotion to his country, 
his fidelity to his friends and his magnanimity to those 
who had been his enemies, his prompt obedience to every 
call of duty, and his broad and catholic patriotism, which 
embraced in its scope his whole country, and ignored all 
sectional divisions, must command the approval of all good 
men. Like Washington, he believed " the union of the 
States " to be " the palladium of our poUtical safety and 
prosperity"; and no one was more prompt than he "to 
frown upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate 



13 

any portion of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble 
the sacred ties which now link together the various 
parts." 

Whatever differences of opinion may exist as to the 
wisdom of special acts which he felt called on to perform 
during his long and brilliant career, few will be found dis- 
posed to question the purity of his motives, and a still 
smaller number to deny his title to be regarded as one of 
the most illustrious men of the nineteenth century. 

In private life he was faithful in the discharge of every 
duty. A devoted husband, an affectionate and indulgent 
father, a law-abiding citizen, a kind neighbor, a courteous 
and affable gentleman, he enjoyed the confidence and 
esteem of all who knew him, and few had warmer and 
more steadfast and devoted friends. 

As a member of this Board he was prompt in his at- 
tendance on its sessions, and an active and zealous sup- 
porter of every measure proposed by it for the promotion 
of the sacred trusts committed to its charge, and the sur- 
viving members will never cease to deplore the loss of his 
companionship and the withdrawal of the moral weight and 
influence which his great name gave to the deliberations 
and action of the Board. 

RESOLUTIONS. 

Resolved, That the foregoing Report be approved and adopted 
by the Board, and tliat it be spread at large on our record as a 
heartfelt, though imperfect, tribute of affection and respect by the 
surviving members of the Board to the memory of their late 
distinguished associate. 

Resolved, That our Chairman be requested to transmit a prop- 
erly authenticated copy of these proceedings to the widow and 
family of General GR.'iNT, with an assurance of the profound 
sympathy of each and every member of the Board in their sore 
bereavement. 



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